The analysis of biological samples, including the identification, characterization, and re-engineering of proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, and other important biomolecules, has benefited greatly from the scaling up of sample numbers and the scaling down of sample sizes. For example, the two-dimensional microarrays of biological materials, such as DNA microarrays, have enabled the development of high-throughput screening methods involving multiplexed approaches for processing samples and detecting results.
The above approaches have, in some cases, benefited from their combination with optical sensing technology to identify specimens of interest using fluorescent or other corresponding specific and sensitive labeling approaches.
While such techniques provide analytical information about a particular sample, for example the presence and potentially the amount of a particular biomolecule in a solution or the sequence of a particular nucleic acid or polypeptide, they typically do not allow for the recovery of a biological sample identified by the assay without inactivating or otherwise damaging the sample of interest.
There is therefore a continuing need to develop improved microscale screening and analysis methods and systems with high throughput capabilities, and particularly methods and systems that enable recovery of samples identified in the screening and analysis.